OBJECTS NON-STAKEHOLDERS AT MEETINGS
Joint Committee for Prevention of Illegal Immigrants (JCPI), under the aegis of the Nagaland Tribes Council, which spearheaded the move to cover Dimapur district under the BEFR Act 1873 or ILP has reminded the government of the Register of Indigenous Inhabitants of Nagaland (RIIN) whose report was submitted to the government by the Banuo Commission in 2019.
JCPI through its media cell, pointed out that when Nagaland became the 16th state of the Indian Union on December 1,1963 , it was duly mandated by the constitution of India for enforcement of BEFR Act 1873/ILP over entire Nagaland state with December 1,1963 as cut-off date and year for identification of indigenous inhabitants of Nagaland.
JCPI said successive governments however left out Dimapur district from the purview of BEFR/ILP till the present government issued notification on December 9,2019 but with a different cut-off date and year for identification of indigenous inhabitants of the state. JCPI said this not only violated established laws of the land but also went against with wishes of the people of Nagaland. It said the arbitrary notification was done with reasons best known to the people in authority which subsequently led to the formation of the Banuo Commission on RIIN.
JCPI also recalled that in an open letter addressed to the chief minister, it had sought enactment of the Banuo Commission report on RIIN at the 7th session of the 13th NLA from February 12,2021 but the voices of the people was ignored.
As reaction against the government’s failure to take up enactment of RIIN, JCPI said it organized protest rallies on March 19,2021 in Kohima & Dimapur and submission of memorandums for implementation of RIIN exercises through an ordinance with December 1,1963 as cut-off date and year.
JCPI said the government of Nagaland, instead, called for a consultative meeting on April 16,2021 by constituting and State-level Joint Consultative Committee but where “non stakeholders without legal tribal recognition, were being also included with no time frame.” Further, JCPI said as per the reply of the chief minister to the assembly , that RIIN will be tabled at “ the right time”, it was again deliberately not tabled at the subsequent 8th session of the 13th NLA. JCPI said the covid-19 pandemic SOPs did not allow democratic form of protests against the government inaction on RIIN. It said the state government was only indulging in dilly-dally tactics to hamper implementation of RIIN that was a pre-requisite for enforcing ILP in Nagaland.
According to JCPI one of the primary reasons of RIIN is to prevent issuance of fake indigenous certificates and to take safety measures since thousands of such certificates will be issued after the declaration of results of recent post-matriculation and secondary board examinations.
In this regard, JCPI has demanded immediate documentation and authentication of any indigenous inhabitant certificate issued henceforth and also demand a deadline be set for the final report of the constituted State Level Consultative Committee (SLCC). It also demanded that participation in such consultative meetings by “non stakeholders” for determining the status of indigenous inhabitants of Nagaland is objectionable and demanded an explanation behind such a rationale.